


Wicked Witches

by PredictablePisces



Category: Wicked Witches - Fandom
Genre: F/F, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-19
Updated: 2020-10-19
Packaged: 2021-03-08 21:41:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 4,094
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27093712
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PredictablePisces/pseuds/PredictablePisces
Summary: From birth, Witches are trained to hone their skills into their sharpest weapons. They are also trained to fight for their Coven and Craft until their last breath. Their loyalty is first to their Mothers, Maidens, and Crones, then their Covens. This is a story about their battles, with their enemies and their allies.





	1. Chapter 1: Sebastian

Sebastian

_ I do not want to be here right now. _ The thought has been cycling through my head for the last three hours. I have survived countless threats to my life, but I think this will be the one to kill me. The pub is hot and humid with the swell of people trying to push through the door. The stale stench of spilled liquor and unwashed bodies is making my head spin. My growing headache is not helped by the noise of the pub , the roar of voices drown out the poor bard sawing away at his fiddle in the corner.  **_I do not want to be here right now._ ** I’m sure the glower on my face has turned murderous with the last repetition of my silent mantra. 

“Could you rearrange your face into something more neutral, if not pleasant? You’re scaring all the ladies away.” The cause of my discomfort joyously shouts over the noise of the crowded pub. He slides into the booth with two more drinks in hand, completely oblivious to the fact that I still haven’t touched my first one. Or my second.

“I don’t want to be here right now, Dominic.” I gruffly repeat my thoughts out loud. 

“So you’ve said! About every fifteen minutes since we sat down,” Dominic responds far too chipper for my taste, “Would it kill you to relax and extract the stick from up your ass for one night and have a drink?”

“Yes.” The shortness of my reply procures a loud chuckle and his grin to stretch even further than before, showing his straight teeth and dimples. Several young women at the next table glance our way and start giggling at the sight, “I know this maybe shocking to you, but not all of us enjoy spending time in such… upstanding establishments,” I say, sarcasm dripping from every word. 

“Oh, I know. My reasons for being here, beyond you of course, are sitting over there with low necklines. And you can’t find reasons like those in anything but upstanding establishments.” Dominic purrs while sending a wink towards the girls, spawning another storm of giggles, and causing another dull throb to echo through my skull. 

“Dom.  **Please** . _ I. Want. To. Go. Home. _ ” I growl. 

“Oh, you are no fun, Bashie-” 

“Don’t call me that.” I growl, trying to interrupt him, but he continues like I never said anything.

“-Besides, what’s wrong with a little entertainment? We deserve it! We are graduating tomorrow!”

“Exactly, we are graduating tomorrow. Do you want to feel like death warmed over when you get Paired?” I shoot back

“Oh, I’m prepared to feel like death tomorrow. If I don’t I’ll be disappointed since it would mean that I didn’t have enough fun tonight. Besides, I am here as an  _ enabling _ force. Neither of us have had any time to let off steam while we’ve been trying to survive our examinations. You need to have a little fun, unwind, let loose, before the pressure causes your handsome little head to explode.”

“I don’t need to let off steam.” I grind out between clenched teeth. 

“Says the man whose jaw is clenched so hard it looks like he may shatter his teeth.Tell me does the relaxed version of you always aspire to do an excellent impression of someone who is wound so tight his favorite part is in danger of screwing off?” he asks. “And not the fun type of screwing either.” He adds, winking again at the girls, causing more giggles to erupt from them and another blast of pain radiating through my skull from me.

“If I have a drink will you please stop talking?” Resignation ringing in my voice. 

“I’d do anything for you, Bashie. But I have to tell you, if you drink enough you’ll want me to talk even  _ more _ .” He coos in a faux-affectionate voice as he waggles his eyebrows. 

I roll my eyes and kick his shin under the table, relishing in the yelp that it elicits. 

_ Bastard deserves it. _

Dominic is right, the Corp Commandment made this graduation process more difficult than the ones my comrades had to go through in previous years. Some of our instructors said it was more dangerous and demanding than they had ever seen. Maybe I  _ do _ need to let loose. 

Quickly, I raise my drink to my lips, before I can change my mind, down half of it and slam it back on the sticky table. 

Dominic grins triumphantly, shouts over the din, “It’s about time you miserable, stubborn ass.” 

I sigh with faux-defeat and raise my cup. He crashes his cup to mine, and we race to see who can see the bottom first. I lose, and Dominic graciously makes me go get the next round. 

When I return, my brother-in-arms keeps talking like I never left, “Oh, what I’d give to have some good company with us right now.”

“Dom,” I start with a warning tone. 

Dom sighs dreamily, as if he didn’t hear, “How lovely would it be if we had some of those marvelous witches with us here with us. They’re always up for some mischief. Do you remember that red-haired fire maiden? What was her name again?”

“I believe it was Fiamma.” I grind out, remembering one of the times that I barely survived trying to save Dom’s sorry ass as the aforementioned witch attempted to burn him to cinders. 

“Ahh, you’re right it  _ was _ Fiamma. Do you remember that night we met her? She was so lovely, and had a real spark to her personality, don’t you think?” He continues gaily, purposefully forgetting what that  _ spark _ nearly did to him. 

“From what I remember. You challenged her to a drinking competition, lost, then challenged her to a bout in the ring, and lost again. I was barely able to drag you out before she burnt all your hair off because of your big mouth.” 

“Yes, but it was  _ fun _ . Don’t you think? Though the time it took to regrow my eyebrows was quite embarrassing.” 

Despite my foul mood, a chuckle escapes me. “You looked ridiculous, and your ego needed the hit.”

“Yes, but even without eyebrows, I still managed to charm her into my chambers. And let me tell you, her curtains most certainly match the dra-” He retorts, his telltale smirk stretched across his face. I know Dominic is trying to get my mind off of graduating tomorrow, and it’s working. I’m almost thankful. 

“You’re a pig, Dominic.” I laugh quickly cutting off his lewd comment, “Is seeing under skirts all you think about?”

“Of course not! I regularly think of seeing under corsets as well! But, just between you and me?”

“Just between you and me.” I agree, chuckling.

“Althea Abano will hold my heart until the day I die.” He says while clutching at his chest like a love-struck fool. 

“And just your heart?” I ask skeptically, already knowing his answer. 

“Well other things of course, if she’d like to hold them.” He grins and tries to wink at me, but in his highly inebriated state, he just manages a slightly off tempo blink.

I roll my eyes at the self-assured grin he sends my way and I begin to open my mouth to tell him that any woman, including Thea, would be content to crush anything he’d want them to hold with an iron fist. 

But I am cut off by the tavern door slamming open on an incredible gust of wind.

Dust tornadoes through the doorway, covering anyone unfortunate enough to be near it in a fine layer of red dirt. The tavern is immediately quiet as all look up to see the cause of the storm enter the tavern. Two women. No, two witches. Both beautiful and fierce. One tall, with tangled, windblown chestnut hair looking as dangerous as an oncoming storm. She seems to float through the air as she passes through the doorway. The other is smaller with her ebony curls neatly braided back from her face. She is more grounded, with an aura of calm that radiates from her. I immediately recognize both of them, and my headache blazes again. The smaller one is the topic of our cut off conversation: Althea Abano. Healer Maiden. Her companion is the Air Maiden, and permanent pain in my ass: Margery Tuuli.


	2. Chapter 2: Margery

Margery

_ I do _ not  _ want to be here right now.  _ The thought pops into my head as soon as our feet touch the dry red dirt path that leads to the run down pub. As we grow closer to the tavern the thought begins to repeat over and over. The air unwittingly responds to my black mood and within steps I have a miniature dust storm swirling around me. I must make quite a sight, but I don’t care.

“Oh, quit your blustering.” Althea spits in that no-nonsense tone of hers. 

“Thea, I do not want to be here right now.” I respond almost pleadingly. 

“Yes, I know you want to be up in the sky flying around keeping all your thoughts swirling through your head, and never actually let them out.” She replies, “This will be good for you. You need to get whatever is on your chest off of it before it suffocates you. Or you need a decent distraction. And I am going to help with that process.”

“By taking me to a pub?” I almost whine. She shoots me a look, and I give up on my hopeless battle of wills with my friend. The witch is a healer and she believes in healing the mind, the body, and the soul, which is wonderful for her patients, but a pain in the ass for me when all I want to do is stew. 

“How about an entrance, Airhead?” Thea quirks an eyebrow with the challenge. Her tone is daring and full of promises of mischief. I know she’s trying to break me from the current of anxious thoughts swirling through my mind, and --damn her-- it works. 

“How about a hell of an entrance?” My tone matches hers and I smirk. I roll my shoulders back. Take a deep breath in. And on the exhale I use most of my considerable power to buffet the door with gale-force winds.

The door  _ slams _ open with a crash.

The deafening chatter coming from within the tavern is immediately silenced. 

Thea and I push our way through the crowd towards the bar. As I try to flag down the barkeep, I see my friend searching the crowd, eyes roving from table to table. I open my mouth to ask who she’s looking for, but her hand grabs my arm with inhuman strength. 

“Ow, Thea! Retract the claws, I’m getting our drinks now.” I shout over the returned din, gossiping about our entry to the pub.

“Nevermind that Mar, look who’s  _ here _ ,” She exclaims. Her tone immediately puts me on edge. She’s too excited. 

She continues, “I’ve found you the perfect distraction.”

I reluctantly follow her nod to the table with two fiercely built men.

I recognize them both immediately. Dominic D’Orio’s chocolate brown hair is longer than it was the last time I saw him, but it suits him. Wild hair for a wild man. His dimpled smile is as charming as ever. Which I’m sure Thea is as mesmerized with as ever. It looks like his eyebrows have finally grown back from when Fi singed them off a few months ago. Despite what the Mothers and the Commanders said, he deserved it for mouthing off that much. And Fiamma said that she apologized to him that night. 

D’Orio’s companion, to my absolute delight, looks completely miserable. His broad shoulders are stiff and his arms are crossed in front of his chest, making his biceps bulge more than usual. Not a strand of his silver blond hair is out of place, and his shirt and jacket look like they were freshly pressed right before Thea and I walked in. A frown is twisted on his face and I can see the muscle ticking in his jaw from across the room. The strong column of his neck is so tense he must have a headache from all the stress. Sebastian Nystrom looks so furious that he must be in pain.

_ Good.  _

No matter how handsome the two men were, there was still a small circle of space around their table, as if Nystrom’s foul mood was actually a shield around them. It was effective in keeping the ladies at the table next to them in their own seats, most likely to Dominic’s dismay. I could still hear their giggles over the fiddler playing a bawdy jig in the corner. Not that I could blame them. The two men sitting at the sticky table were easily the largest men in the tavern. 

And the most handsome. 

_ I do not want to be here right now.  _


	3. Chapter 3: Dominic

Dominic

I know that I have never told her, but I love Althea Abano. 

I love the way she rolls her eyes at me when I’ve said something truly idiotic. 

I love the way she laughs and the way she has never given me the time of day. 

I love the way her eyes go soft when she’s healing someone. 

But most of all, I love her brilliant mind. When I got her note earlier today, I thought it was a joke. We had seen each other this morning outside the Commandment offices, but she hadn’t even looked at me. I was with Sebastian as we walked to the training ground, he was still brooding and it was my first attempt at making him blow off steam for tomorrow. It did work, until Thea and Margery walked through the courtyard. 

Well, Thea walked. Margery was so upset, her feet weren’t even touching the stone pathway, they were hovering an inch or two off the ground. Seb stopped me from calling out to the witches, and his expression turned as stormy as Mar’s as they continued to the Commandment’s offices. Thea glanced between the two of them and frowned before closing the heavy door to the stone building. Not sparing me a second glance. 

I understandably thought that I had lost it when I received her message later in the afternoon. Her small neat script filled a small portion of the page:

_ Meet me at the Crow’s Head Tavern tonight, bring the other oaf with you. Mar is stewing just as much as he is.  _

We both knew that to get Bas and Mar to stop worrying about tomorrow, we had to get them fighting each other. It was sneaky. And underhanded. And a brilliant plan. 

I love Althea Abano. 


	4. Chapter 4: Sebastian

Sebastian

“Well who knew that those lovely witches would be here today?” Dominic says as the witches make their way to the bar.

He sounds too chipper and not at all surprised at the unexpected entrance of the women. “Dominic. Did you plan this?” I grind out, my jaw locked. 

He goes to stand as he ignores me and says, “Come on, let’s go say hello.”

“Hell no.” Is my short response. I grab his arm and pull him back down to his seat, “I swear Dom, I am going to kill you.”

“You’ve threatened that before, and have never followed through. I think you’d miss me too much.” Flippant is not strong enough of a word to describe Dom’s tone when he says, “Besides, we are going to be working with them soon, you know spending almost every waking moment together. We should try and play nice. Unless…” He trails off too innocently for my taste. 

“Unless what, Dominic?” I grit out.

“I mean, it’s totally understandable that you don’t want to show how attracted you truly are to Margery to the whole tav-” He cuts off with a satisfying yelp as my foot slams down on his under the table.

_ Bastard deserves it.  _

Unfortunately, his yelp draws unwanted attention from the two people that I have the least interest in talking to tonight. The noise in the tavern is back to full volume but Thea’s head still whips around at the noise, healer’s ear I’d guess, and sees us. Though if Dominic did plan this, she’d probably seen us as soon as she walked in the door. She grabs her companion and nods in our direction. Margery cuts her stormy eyes straight to me and I can see her displeasure in the downward quirk in the corner of her mouth. Thea whispers something in her ear and begins pulling them both through the crowd toward us. 

I can sense Dominic gleefully looking between us as his grin turns into that of the shit-eating variety. 

He leans across the table to murmur to me, “You poor bastard, you are so  _ fucked. _ ” 

Then he traitorously hops to his feet,  _ bows _ to the women, turns to Althea and politely requests if he can buy her a drink. And effectively abandons me at the hands of the enemy. 

_ I do  _ not _ want to be here right now. _

Thea agrees with a mischievous smile of her own towards Margery and the crowd swallows them as they go back in the direction of the bar. 

Margery looks after Thea as if she thinks her friend just left her in a cage with a hungry wolf.  _ The feeling is mutual. _

When her eyes come back to me she lifts a brow at the multiple cups on the table. Empty, mostly courtesy of Dominic, but she doesn’t know that. Well, now that there is a perfect distraction for me across the ale-soaked table, I might as well play a little game.

Sprawling in my chair, I slur my words slightly as I drawl, “Well. Won’t you please join me, Maiden Margery?”


	5. Chapter 5: Margery

Margery

Thea uses the grip she still has wrapped around my arm to lead us through the crowd towards their table. As we near I can see irritation creasing Sebastian’s strong brow and a wicked grin on Dominic’s lips as he leans across the table to Nystrom to mumble something. 

When we reach the men, D’Orio leaps up,  _ actually bows _ , and leads Thea back to the bar to buy her a drink. I glare at her traitorous back as she leaves me with the premier martinet in the entire Corps. Thea was right though, sparring with Nystrom will give me the distraction I need from my cyclical thoughts about the worrying comments my mother, the Air Mother, made to me this morning.

“Well. Won’t you please join me, Maiden Margery?” I don’t buy the slur that graces his invitation. There’s a half dozen empty cups on the table, but his ice blue eyes are too bright and aware to be drunk. His clothes, too unrumpled. He’s putting on a good act, so I decide to play along, and reluctantly sit down in Dominic’s recently vacated seat. 

“It is so  _ wonderful _ to see you, Sebastian.” I purr with barely contained hostility. “I’ve missed you since our last little run in.” Said run in was a final examination for the graduating class of Corps cadets and one for my coven as well. We were sparring with the cadets to see how our powers and their training had progressed from the previous year. Our fight had ended in a humiliating draw. 

“Oh, not as much as I’ve missed you, Margery. I promise,” He responds maliciously in the same tone, “want to go another round? Or are you afraid I’ll beat you this time.”

“It’s cute that you think you can keep up with a witch. If I recall correctly, you were pretty out of breath last time.” During our spar, I ripped the air out of his lungs, nevermind that he had still ended up with a sword pressed to my ribs. 

“That was a dirty move, and you know it.” The faux softness was out of his voice now and his usual grit was back. Jaw ticking and all. 

_ God, I love pissing him off.  _

“Well, I’m sure that our enemies aren’t going to follow the rules, so why should I hold back when I’m sparring?” I scoff and roll my eyes at him. 

He grips the table and leans forward, eyes blazing blue, “The rules are there to make sure no one gets hurt.” 

“Well, no one did get hurt, did they?” I throw back with the same ferocity, “Besides, Nystrom, I fight to win. I’ll do whatever it takes, even if it means taking some dirty shots. Our enemies are willing to go the next step, we shouldn’t be holding back, even in training.” 

A freezing calm slides over his features, and he goes impossibly still, “But you didn’t win, did you, Tuuli?”

Now it’s my turn to grind my teeth as my pulse skyrockets. I feel wind swirling around me as my emotions start taking control. 

“Fighting without honor shows who you really are. Playing against the rules didn’t help you last time, and it won’t help you next time.” He says this softly. His voice ice coated in velvet. 

“You’re singing the same song from when we were children. A bit of creativity would do you some good.” I blow out, crossing my arms and sitting back in my chair. 

_ Is that what he truly thinks of me? That I don’t have any honor? Do others think that too? Is that what the Coven thinks? _

“I keep saying the same thing because you still haven’t listened to me. You need to grow up. The pairing ceremony is tomorrow, it’s time you stepped into your role as a leader of your Craft.” Sitting back was a mistake, he’s on the offensive now, and gods I hate him for it. 

My fury swells within me, and I send my chair clattering to the floor as I fly to my feet. I am almost shouting when I say, “We’ve been forced together for years, yet you still know nothing about me, Sebastian. You know nothing of what I do for my Coven or for the witches of my Craft. Just because I don’t think the same as you, does not mean I’m a child. I pity the witch that gets paired with a cold, uncaring, bastard like you!” I really am shouting now. 

He’s on his feet too, chair still standing. His voice almost gives me goosebumps from how icy and low it is, “At least I will not be paired with a witch that is dishonorable, flighty, and irresponsible.” 

I growl at him. I want to reach across the table and grab his perfectly pressed collar and show him how truly dishonorable I am by sending my knee directly to his groin, but I know he’s expecting me to continue to fight him. I know he wants me to keep fighting him. So instead I roll my eyes and spit out, “Goodnight, Sebastian. Unfortunately, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

I walk past his bulk without looking at him and continue to the bar, where Thea and Dominic are resolutely pretending to not watch the argument that had just happened. 

“Dominic, terrible to see you as always. Thea, I think I’m going to head back to my rooms. Do you want to stay?” I ask briskly. 

“No, I think I’ve had enough entertainment for one night. I’ll walk with you.” She responds with a too wide grin. 

“Ladies, it was wonderful seeing you this evening. Margery, you are as lively as a tempest. Thea, you are the most beautiful creature I’ve ever laid eyes on. My evening will be darker without the two of you.” Dominic proclaims with another bow and a kiss to Thea’s hand that she pretends not to enjoy. 

“Goodnight, Dominic.” I return flatly. 

He shoots me a wink and retrieves two more ales before he returns to his table. 

Sebastian is still standing and his stare is an icy brand as he watches Thea and I walk out the door. 

It’s only once we’ve walked nearly half way back to the Coven House that I break the silence between us, “You planned that didn’t you? To get me out of my own head.”

Thea barks out a short burst of laughter at my flat tone, “It worked, didn’t it?”

I laugh too, and buffet her with a swell of wind, “You’re terrible.”

Though as we walk the rest of the way to the House, I can’t help but wonder if Nystrom was right about all those things he said about me. 


End file.
